A commonly used type of multi-contact electrical connector comprises an insulating housing having a mating face, a wire receiving face which faces oppositely with respect to the mating face, oppositely facing housing sidewalls, oppositely facing endwalls, and side-by-side cavities extending through the housing from the wire receiving face to the mating face. Electrical contact terminals are contained in the cavities and each terminal has a wire receiving slot so that wires can be connected to the terminals by moving the wires laterally of their axes and into the wire receiving slots. U.S. Pat. No. 4,405,193, filed June 8, 1981, shows a connector of this general type.
In harness manufacturing operations, there may be a need for connectors of the type described above having different numbers of contact terminals and there is also a need for two different types of connectors; one type, referred to as a feed-through connector, which is designed to be installed on wires intermediate the ends of the wires and another type, the wire end type, which is designed to be installed on the ends of the wires.
Ordinarily, the requirement for many different sizes and types of connectors is satisfied by making a special mold for each type of connector required and producing the individual types and sizes of connectors which are required for a particular electrical harness. It can be appreciated that this approach to the problem of providing different types and sizes of connectors results in relatively high tooling cost for the harness manufacturer and it also results in high inventory requirements on the part of the manufacturer since he must maintain a stock of all of the types of connectors he needs for his manufacturing operations.
The present invention is directed to the achievement of connector housings in the form of individual segments which can be latched or otherwise joined to each other to produce a connector housing having any desired number of electrical contact positions or terminals. The invention is further directed to the achievement of a continuous strip of connector housing material that can be cut to a desired length to produce a housing of the desired size.
A multi-contact electrical connector assembly in accordance with one embodiment of the invention is of the type comprising a connector housing and end closure members. The housing has a mating face and a wire-receiving face which faces oppositely with respect to the mating face, oppositely facing housing sidewalls and oppositely facing housing endwalls extend from the mating face to the wire-receiving face. A plurality of cavities extend through the housing from the wire-receiving face to the mating face, the cavities being side-by-side in a row which extends between the housing endwalls. Each of the cavities has an electrical contact terminal therein of the type having a wire receiving slot adjacent to the wire-receiving face. At least one of the housing sidewalls has wire admitting slots therein at the wire-receiving face which are in alignment with the terminals so that wires can be moved laterally of their axes and inserted into the wire-receiving slots and the inserted wires will then extend through the wire-admitting slots. The end closure members are dimensioned for insertion into the cavities at the wire receiving face to retain the wires in the slots in the terminals. The connector assembly is characterized in that the housing comprises a plurality of individual housing cells, the cells being connected to each other by integral connecting cell webs which extend between the cells at the wire-receiving face. The end closures are in strip form and are connected to each other by closure webs. The cell webs and the closure webs are in alignment when the closures are inserted into the cavities and the cell webs and the closure webs are severable upon relative movement of a severing blade through the cell webs and the closure webs. In accordance with a further embodiment, the assembly has one juxtaposed pair of cells which are connected to each other by interengaged latches which are provided in the juxtaposed pair of cells a the wire-receiving face of the connector. The pitch of the one juxtaposed pair of cells is the same as the pitch of the remaining cells of the connector assembly and the interengaged latches are severable upon relative movement of a severing blade through the interengaged latches.
A further embodiment comprises a continuous strip of connector housing material which, when severed, produces multi-contact electrical connectors. The multi-contact electrical connectors thus produced each comprises an insulating housing having a mating face and a wire-receiving face which faces oppositely with respect to the mating face, oppositely facing housing sidewalls and oppositely facing housing endwalls extend from the mating face to the wire-receiving face. A plurality of cavities extend through the housing from the wire-receiving face to the mating face, the cavities being side-by-side in a row which extends between the housing endwalls. Each of the cavities has an electrical contact terminal therein of the type having a wire receiving slot adjacent to the wire-receiving face. At least one of the housing sidewalls has wire admitting slots therein at the wire receiving face which are in alignment with the terminals so that wires can be moved laterally of their axes and inserted into the wire-receiving slots and the inserted wires will then extend through the wire-admitting slots. The continuous strip of connector housing material is characterized in that the strip comprises a continuous string of housing cells, each cell having a mating cell face and a wire-receiving cell face which faces oppositely with respect to the mating cell face. Each cell has oppositely facing cell sidewalls which face laterally of the strip and oppositely facing cell endwalls, juxtaposed cells in the strip having their endwalls opposed to each other. Juxtaposed cells in the string are connected to each other by integral cell webs which extend between the juxtaposed cells at the wire-receiving faces thereof and are severable from each other upon severing the cell webs connecting the juxtaposed cells whereby a multi-contact electrical connector is produced by severing the desired number of cells from the end of the strip. In accordance with a further embodiment, the opposed cell endwalls of the juxtaposed cells in the strip are spaced apart whereby the continuous strip can be convolutely wound on a reel. A further embodiment is characterized in that that continuous strip is made up of a series of segments, each segment comprising a plurality of cells, the cells at the ends of each segment being connected to the end cells of juxtaposed segments by interengaged latches. The interengaged latches are severable upon relative movement of a severing blade through the interengaged latches.